Micromobility company Beryl has insisted that e-scooters will continue to play ‘a vital role’ in properly integrated multimodal urban transport, despite Parisians voting to end their three existing schemes.
The referendum on Sunday (2 April) saw almost 90% vote in favour of banning e-scooters in the city, meaning the three separate contracts will not be renewed when they expire in August this year.
Beryl CEO Phil Ellis argued that e-scooters complement shared systems and boost service provision and resilience, enabling cities to rely on them as a fundamental part of their transport strategies but that this impact is diminished when e-bike or e-scooter schemes are delivered in isolation and without proper integration.
E-scooters from different operators, Paris, March 2023
He described Paris an example of how schemes run by three different operators can give the public a skewed vision of integration, adding that the referendum ‘stopped being a vote on whether shared electric scooters can benefit residents and visitors to a city, instead becoming a vote on whether shared electric scooters should be banned based on what you’ve seen so far’.
Beryl operates shared e-scooter schemes in partnership with BCP Council, Norfolk County Council and Isle of Wight Council.
It said all three are delivered alongside other modes under properly integrated schemes, designed to complement local transport networks and encourage people to develop more sustainable travel habits.
Mr Ellis said: ‘Our shared systems not only exist to encourage behaviour change toward shared active travel, boosting air quality and public health while cutting traffic congestion, they also add resilience and patronage to public transport systems.
‘Sharing systems play a fundamental role in the public transport mix of a city and can punch well above their weight in improving the health and sustainability of towns and cities. Ultimately, they are better with e-scooters in them, than without them.’
